Public The Blockage Runners

[Vetru]

• An open story in 3 parts (see the spoilers at the end)
  • 1) Get to your ship
  • 2) Get past the TIE fighters flying overhead
  • 3) get through the imperial blockade around the moon
• An imperial force has blockaded the mining colony of Ketris IV
• For whatever reason your character is here with their ship and wants out
• Stormtroopers have landed at the spaceport.

Gateshead bar, mining colony, Ketris IV

"So, our business is concluded?" the trandoshan asked, hissing through every word.

Vetru looked down at the stack of credit chits on the table in front of them. It was almost twice as high as he had wanted it to be. Given that he had four large trandoshan sitting around him he hadn't felt in a very strong bargaining position.

"Tomorrow morning you bring the goods to my ship," Vetru confirmed.

"Then we are..." the dealer started, but he was interrupted by the doors to the bar being thrown wide open.

"A blockade!" the human in the doorway shouted.

Vetru stood up and and took two quick steps to the window. A trio of imperial shuttles flew overhead. High in the sky he could see wedge shaped silhouettes in the sky. Likely another ex-moff warlord trying to stake a claim to some territory.

"The deal..." Vetru started to say, turning back.

"Is concluded," countered the trandoshan. The credit chits were gone.

Vetru swore. He didn't have time to argue or try and get his credits back. With his rap sheet he needed to get out of this system quickly.

A lot of other people seemed to have the same idea.

Spoiler: Three Parts

Imperial stormtroopers have already landed at the spaceport. Fight/run/sneak past them to reach your ship (or hitch a ride with someone else)

TIE fighters are screaming over the mining settlement and won't let your take off without a fight. The arid landscape is filled with canyons and you might be able to thrown them off here.

The system had a thick asteroid belt, making an immediate jump to hyperspace impossible. You'll have to run the blockade of star destroyers and make it through the asteroids.

 

[Delila Castillon]

Gateshead Bar, Mining Colony, Ketris IV
Xin Boa | Vetru | Jorus Q. Merrill
​

"I can't even enjoy my drink."

Xin would knew what she meant. The pair had been recently enslaved in a mining camp in an effort to rescue their young teenage charge. It had been an exhausting experience that she hadn't quite recovered from. Hell, even the events leading up to their mining experience had been nothing but on the run near-escapes and trying to stay one step ahead of bounty hunters. However, just because she wasn't ready for the universe, didn't mean the rest of the universe stopped.

Xin and herself, along with a barabel named Brak and a monkey-lizard named Skreech, were back in the hyperlanes taking on jobs. Dells wanted a nice, quiet long-haul cargo run, which had brought them out to the Ketris IV mining colony to move refined ore bars back from the outerim back to the core worlds. Boring would be a welcome change of pace after months on the run. She was looking forward to the weeks-long stretches of time in hyperspace.

Glancing around the bar, Delila couldn't help but notice one person at the counter kept looking back in their direction every so often. She had been keeping an eye on him, wondering if they hadn't quite shaken off all the bounties just yet. Or perhaps it was nothing, maybe just a creep who had some overly amorous thoughts about her.

Don't flatter yourself Dells, he's a bounty hunter, not a pervert. Maybe if you were dressed a bit different....

"Cargo should be about loaded up or do your Jedi senses tell you differently?"

Grin flashed in the direction of her better half. No way had she been letting him off the hook after that revelation.

 

[Cass Gemini]

Spoiler: Gear and other links

Equipped: Calypso's Thunder, Harlequin sabers, Gravpack, Viper mk2 skinsuit
Ship: Midnight Kyber
NPCs: Crew of the Midnight Kyber

Location: "Butterflies" brothel
Objective: Escape to her ship
Tags: OPEN

The Pirate Cass Gemini finished adjusting her hair and zipping herself back in to her red and black outfit as she sat on the end of the bed, the Wookiee snored loudly at the other end, half covered by the blush coloured satin sheets. "amateur" she said quietly to herself as she sighed, so much promise, so many boasts and big words, but her arms were well and truly still in their sockets. Ah well, at least it was fun while it lasted. She clipped the last of her weaponry to her belt and stepped out of the door into the main bar, no sooner had she walked half way to the exit when someone shouted from the bar, an overweight Besalisk with a club in one hand and a blaster in another. OI! YOU!! You don't even work here! Stop Karking taking money off my punters!!"

Cass laughed and blew him a kiss between her fingers swearing at him. His overcharged blaster whistled as the capacitor pulsed and a blast shot past her, she flicked her head to one side and the round buzzed past, blowing into the wall. A second shot also blew towards her, but now she had her blade put and she deflected it back toward him, blowing apart an expensive bottle of brandy and causing him to duck behind the bar. She strolled out before he had time to stand back, and just heard a few choice expletives sent her way.

She was quite pleased with herself, 500 credits richer and she had worked that little tension out of her back that had been bothering her. What to do now, she had some ill gotten gains and was free as a bird. That was when she heard it, the teen tale whine of twin ion engines, she would recognise it anywhere and 3 TIEs flew over heard, Imperials, Feth, oh well, back to the ship it was. She clipped her saber back to her belt and tried to blend in with the crowd.

​

 

[Jorus Q. Merrill]

"A blockade!" the human in the doorway shouted.

Vetru stood up and and took two quick steps to the window. A trio of imperial shuttles flew overhead. High in the sky he could see wedge shaped silhouettes in the sky.

GATESHEAD BAR — MINING COLONY — KETRIS IV
NEARBY: Vetru Delila Castillon Xin Boa
OTHERS: Cass Gemini

Off in the corner, old man Merrill spilled his drink again. Cheap lum, all over the table, dripping on his pants before he could get up. He swiped at his damp knees with an ineffectual napkin. These were his favorite pants, too: the ones with the lower-grade thirty-year-old Corellian Bloodstripes on the sides. "Dammit to feth'n'gone," he mumbled, squinting out the nearest window.

A Zabrak kid — Vetru — was just looking out the same window, or had been until his Trando business associates cut and ran. Jorus tsked in sympathy and headed for the door himself. These days he flew an old Subach-Innes Reclaimer, a corvette-scale space train specced for repair and salvage: the City of Nar Shaddaa. Not the easiest boat to get off the ground, truth be told. Depending on how aggressive this blockade turned out to be, hunkering down could prove a better survival strategy...

His thoughts derailed as he recognized a certain redhead: Delila Castillon , who he'd followed and fought alongside in the Rebel Alliance a long, long time ago.

"...General?" He took a couple steps that way. "Dells? I thought you were dead."

 

[Xin Boa]

"Cargo should be about loaded up or do your Jedi senses tell you differently?"

"My super senses tell me..." Xin said, waving a hand as if he had some magic powers. "...that it is time to get off this world anyway!"

A sith had identified him as having some latent Force senses, a revelation he had been pointedly ignoring ever since. He had no interest in learning how to unlock this potential. He drained his drink and moved to a window. At this point trouble was an inevitability, rather than a surprise.

They had got tangled up with a remnant of a sith empire, but they hadn't the manpower to blockage a mining colony like this. It still wasn't safe for them to get detained by imperials, no matter their affiliation.

"...General?" He took a couple steps that way. "Dells? I thought you were dead."

Xin narrowed his eyes as he stood up. The last one of Dells' old friends had tried to turn her in for credits.

 

[Vetru]

With neither the time, nor ability to take his credits back from four hardened trandoshan smugglers Vetru rushed back to the door and pushed it open. The screech of TIE fighter engines filled the bar.

"The shuttles are dropping into the starport!" he called out.

He watched as their wings swept upwards to let them land. A personal ship took to the skies and slipped beneath them, but as it started to ascend a pair of TIE fighters gave chase and flanked it.

Vetru was certain he could outrun the TIE fighters. His mother's ship was a work of art and tuned to perfection. The stormtroopers that would certainly be in those shuttles were more of a problem.

"Anyone else going to make a run for it?" he called out. The others could make a distraction for him, enabling him to slip past the troopers.

 

[Delila Castillon]

Jorus Q. Merrill | Xin Boa | Cass Gemini


"General? Well there's something I haven't heard in awhile. Don't think I was really deserving of that title then and definitely not now..."

While Xin was immediately suspicious, she had reason to pause, despite the fact it was apparently time for blockade. Not too many called her Dells so casually. It was difficult to pick out the face of the man as well. Many of her old contacts were dead or had simply, like herself, moved to the fringe edges of the 'verse to live a quieter life.

"Sorry, I can't place your name or face."

The horned kid near the windows was complaining - seeing if anyone was going to make a run for it. She rolled her eyes before answering him.

"Yeah, sure.Why don't you go clear a path for us."

The Saegassum wasn't a ship to purposely go picking a fight with. It was basically a cargo hauler with modifications thrown in, some extra guns and engine power. It wasn't going to be able to dogfight with TIE fighters or blaze past shuttles. Like Merrill, she was debating on risk hunkering down on planet or somehow making a run for it. Fake IDs? Her and Xin didn't have the best luck with them.

 

[Jorus Q. Merrill]

Cass Gemini Xin Boa Delila Castillon Vetru

Now on the one hand, he'd tried hard to retire in a serious way, disappear for real. The beard helped. And on the other hand, he and Dells had been friends once upon a time, comrades in arms going back to the original Vagrant Fleet, the Rebel Alliance, the Underground. In sum, he confessed himself both pleased and saddened that she hadn't recognized him. But hey, Julius hadn't either.

Time being short, he responded to the unlucky Zabrak instead.

"Oh, you better believe I'm gonna make a run for it, kid."

Jorus headed out the door. Stormtrooper patrols were already in the streets, so he ducked into the nearest alley and headed for the settlement's landing fields. His goal was his ship.

The City of Nar Shaddaa was a forty-year-old repair and salvage vessel, a 'space train' capable of taking on a whole lot of cargo compartments in line. Right now she had only the one, for a total length of two hundred meters: the biggest ship in the settlement's landing fields.

 

[Vetru]

Vetru wasn't about to be left behind. He was only a few strides behind Jorus as he rushed out into the street.

The zabrak couldn't hear any blaster fire. He took that as a good sign. The stormtroopers in the street didn't give chase. He took that as a good sign.

The starship that had taken off was being led on a sweeping curve by the TIE fighters back to the landing fields.

"Just gonna run until they stop you?" he asked.

 

[Delila Castillon]

|| Xin Boa || Jorus Q. Merrill || Cass Gemini ||@Ventru ||

Brows knit together at the mans reaction. Obviously she was supposed to be able to place the face. He was familiar enough but having avoided most of those involved with the Rebel Alliance things were hazy. Xin didn't seem to be able to identify the man either, not that the Nautolan was around for that phase but still. A lot of the Alliance had ran with the Vagrant Fleet, plenty of opportunities for Xin to have been able to put a face and name together. Not this time however.

It appeared she wouldn't get an answer either.

A man running away from her, how typical.

Unlike those running, she left the bar in a regular stride. Her thought was those eager to leave planet quickly would be a distraction for her own escape. Let the rush happen and they could just easily slip out behind the crowd. She dug around her pocket and produced a comm, hailing an open channel on the Saegassum.

"Skreech? Skreech?! I know you're listening. Warm up the engines, we're going to need to leave in a rush."

 

[Jorus Q. Merrill]

The starship that had taken off was being led on a sweeping curve by the TIE fighters back to the landing fields.

"Just gonna run until they stop you?" he asked.

"Something like that. Keep it down."

Getting a feel for the new occupation's energy, Jorus took his time making his way through the town's back alleys. Rush for the landing fields and you'd get dogpiled by stormtroopers on general principle.

Closer to the landing fields, he dug out his datapad and unholstered an old Spacer Guild scan dart launcher. He'd cut off the foregrip and stock for ease of carry. A little scan dart arced above the last buildings. On his datapad, a crude map took form, with a few clusters of red dots. Two stormtrooper squads nearby, but none directly engaging his ship.

 

[Xin Boa]

"White helmets! White helmets! Cried Skreech back over the comm-link. Xin could picture the monkey lizard at a window, bouncing up and down. Hopefully he didn't get too distracted and got the engines and hyper drive ready to go.

Xin already had a datapad out that was linked to their comm system. With a few taps he had the it network frequency hopping to try and keep them from being jammed by the imperials.

If troopers got onto their ship they would need to know about it.

"Who was that man?" Xin asked. He was yet to tell if he was indifferent, jealous, or nervous. "And I guess if everyone else is making a run for it we have a chance of getting out of atmo."

 

[Vetru]

"Something like that. Keep it down."

Vetru made a petulent noise at the back of his throat. There had never been a father figure in his life. He had been raised by his mother, who had always been on the move. He had a natural inclination to compete with, and prove his worth to other men. That inclination did not extend to taking orders well.

He peered at the display curiously. A scanner with a much lower signature than a droid going up into the air.

Vetru unclipped the holster for his blasters, but let it there. Being caught with a weapon in hand was a surefire way to get the troopers shooting at him. The blaster was a rather obvious, silver sporting weapon. It still wasn't as flash as his bright red, overturned starship.

"That means they're around the ships?" he asked quietly.

 

[Jorus Q. Merrill]

"That means they're around the ships?" he asked quietly.

"Yup." Jorus holstered the scan dart launcher and froze the datapad display before the scan dart burned out. He manipulated the no-longer-real-time image and overlaid it on a basic holomap of the town's hind end.

"I'm seeing three four-man squads on the landing field, light squads, manageable on their own but not if they start converging. Over here—" He leaned around a corner for a quick glance. "—mine's the space train behind the flashy pink one." He scribbled a line on the datapad screen with his fingertip, depicting the long thin ship. "You?"

 

[Delila Castillon]

"Just focus on starting the ship Skreech."

The monkey-lizard always had a flair for the dramatic. They needed to get off planet smoothly, which meant timing their leave right behind the initial flood.

"No idea who he is. Seems familiar but he ran away in a huff. Bit of an over reaction in my opinion."

They were moving a bit more briskly now. Spacers had started to flood the corridors in a panic, trying to get off the mining colony before things got to the point where they couldn't leave. Dells had no interest in being sent off to some weird Imperial labor camp once again.

Eyes caught movement outside of a window.

"I see shuttles starting to land. Skreech was right. We may have to gun our way through."

 

[Vetru]

"—mine's the space train behind the flashy pink one." He scribbled a line on the datapad screen with his fingertip, depicting the long thin ship. "You?

"The, er, flashy pink one," Vetru replied. He felt a flash of embarrassment for how much his ship stood out amongst the sea of gunmetal grey. It would quickly turn to defensive anger if the old man had anything else to say about his ship, about her ship.

"That's an old C20," Vetru said, pointing out a squat block and drawing a route around it. "Carries heavy container pods so you can't see under it when it's on the ground." Vetru knew his ships.

"If we can get there I can draw the TIE fighters," he said. It was a bargain, of sorts. Vetru was certain the smuggler had a better chance of getting past the troopers than he did.

 

[Jorus Q. Merrill]

Vetru

Jorus chuckled under his breath and lobbed another scan dart over the town, this time in a whole other direction.

"Yeah, I bet you'll have zero trouble getting the TIEs' attention. Alright, good plan, kid."

The datapad showed a few others moving in the streets. Out of a few pairs, one or two looked to be moving away from the cantina — Delila Castillon and Xin Boa , more likely than not. Knowing where Dells probably was didn't change much for Jorus, other than assuring him they weren't being dogpiled by stormtroopers.

Jorus tucked the launcher and the datapad away. He looked around the corner again and made a walk for it. Not a run — he didn't want to catch some stormtrooper's peripheral vision. No, a nice purposeful walk was about his speed, until he put the C20 between himself and the nearest squad. That put him halfway to the City of Nar Shaddaa.

 

[Xin Boa]

"I see shuttles starting to land. Skreech was right. We may have to gun our way through."

"Didn't seem a nice colony for a hideaway," Xin replied with a shrug. He managed to find a little amusement in the situation. He had lately started to think that fate was not playing with them. Instead it was simply the case that the entire Galaxy was constantly in a state of flux that left them in scrape after scrape.

Xin stepped out into the street to find a fireteam of stormtroopers already on the ground. They were jogging towards the far end of the road, ignoring the bar.

"Bet they are heading for the governor's office," Xin said. He was glad they were being ignored for now. There wasn't going to be much that the local 'authorities' could do to avoid the imperials taking control of the mining colony. The best they could hope for was reasonable terms in being allowed to continue the operation.

Xin didn't know if the site was of tactical importance for its resources, or if the imperials simply wanted a slice of the sales.

"Walk to the ship as innocent as possible?"

 

[Vetru]

The walking was excruciating. Vetru was always on the move when he was in danger. His mother had taught him that: never stay still for too long. He was so certain he would hear that robotic amplified sound of a stromtrooper's voice that he started to imagine it.

He hadn't expected the elderly smuggler to praise his plan. 'Good plan' was all he had said. He was torn between being angry at being referred to as a kid and at being praised by an older man.

"Hey, you there!"

That wasn't his imagination. They were half way around the C20, but the voices came from behind. Vetru turned and drew. He had no intention of trying to talk his way out of this.

A single blaster shot rang out. One of the pair of troopers fell back with smoke rising from his chest.

 

[Delila Castillon]

"Walk to the ship as innocent as possible?"

"Innocent? I'm shocked you imply we are anything but."

Arm linked with his, watching the stormtroopers brush past them and down the corridor. If she had to guess it was a total take over of the mining facility. Their cargo was smelted valuable ore but from her own cursory research the mining colony wasn't the only place to obtain it. Easier to take over a pre-built facility? Or was the idea a stronghold in the area?

They walked out onto the landing pad, only to be greeted by hordes of stomtroopers and various other military personnel. The struggle was to appear casual as chaos gripped the area. Ships were struggling to get out of the atmosphere, crews on the ground were scrambling to disconnect fuel lines and perform last minute repairs.

Over the din a blaster discharged. Some commotion near a pack of stormtroopers.

"Judging by the sound of blaster fire we might be in luck. Even bigger distraction. Wonder what idiot shot."